Complete self-sufficiency means being able to generate your own energy, but just how feasible is it?

Complete self-sufficiency means being able to generate your own energy, but just how feasible is it? Liz Shankland wonders whether switching to renewable sources makes economic as well as ecological sense

IT'S BEEN one of those weeks when nothing of interest has arrived in the post except for bills. Worse still, we've just had the invoice for another delivery of oil.

Our 30-year-old central heating system is oil-fired, as is the ancient, fuel-guzzling Aga we inherited when we moved into our farmhouse.

Every time one or the other runs out, we grit our teeth and order a fresh load of the expensive stuff, and muse about whether we'll ever get to the stage where we'll be able to do without it.

It's a thought that many people nurture in the early days of smallholding: you've got a bit of land which hasn't been earmarked for anything in particular, so why not try and do without conventional power from non-renewable sources?

Solar panels, wind turbines, biomass systems - there are plenty of intriguing-sounding ways of potentially saving money while also helping to save the planet.

But few smallholders I've met have actually taken that extra step towards making a firm commitment.

A fellow user of my favourite smallholders' website, www.acountrylife.com, has posted a message on the forum this week about the feasibility of fitting an external wood furnace to run heating systems.

Apparently she plans to build cottages on her land to rent out, and has 10 acres of woodland. The plan is to buy a big outdoor furnace to provide their heating, making use of not just wood, but much of the green waste that you wouldn't be able to use in a conventional indoor woodburner.

An interesting idea, but I can't help thinking that you'd be stuffing the system all day long - unless you had some kind of conventional back-up system that would take over if everything burned out.

If anyone's got any experience of outdoor furnaces of this kind, I'd be interested to know.

Gerry and I have thought of biomass - or biofuels - for heating but, as we haven't got extensive woodlands, the only real alternative would be growing something like willow in short rotation coppice (SRC) or one of the newer energy crops like miscanthus (elephant grass).

We took a trip to The Salix Project in Beulah, near Newbridge-on-Wye, Llandrindod Wells, to find out more, and were really impressed by what we saw.

The 1.5ha site is one of the first demonstration areas across Wales to be set up by the Cardiff University-led project. The idea is that potential growers can see the fast-growing crops, and chat to the experts. It's been a year since our visit and, although we've started growing a variety of willow for various purposes, we haven't gone as far as getting ourselves a woodburner yet - but it's still on the list.

When we can manage a day or two away, we're planning to visit the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth to find out more about other potential energy sources.

We've weighed up the costs involved in fitting solar panels, and we're not yet convinced that the savings - even over 20 years, and with a government grant towards the price of installation - would justify the outlay. But we're willing to be convinced.

In the meantime, like most other smallholders, we'll carry on trying out new money-saving ideas that we hear.

But we won't be trying the one mentioned in the latest issue of Countryside magazine. I'm told there's an article written by a man who enthuses about his way of getting cheap meat.

He takes in waifs and strays from his local animal rescue centre - and eats them!

So far he's enjoyed a pot-bellied pig and an emu, apparently. Something makes me think he's taking the idea of frugal living just a bit too far.

You can write to LIZ SHANKLAND c/o Country & Farming, The Western Mail, 17 Queen Street, Neath, SA11 1DN, and see her smallholding on S4C's gardening programme Clwb Garddio on Friday.